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 Detroit voters elected a new mayor recently -- former NBA legend and Hall of Famer Dave Bing, who pledged to lead the city with integrity.
According to the Detroit Free Press, 65-year-old Bing, won 52% of the vote, while his opponent Ken Cockrel received 48 percent. Experts say Bing won by pulling in a lot of undecided voters -- roughly 14% of registered voters participated in the May 5 election.
Bing is the successor to ousted mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, who was forced to resign after he was charged with perjury for lying in a civil lawsuit to conceal an affair he was involved in with his former chief of staff, Christine Beatty.
The former NBA player said he's ready to go to work to bring Detroit out of its funk.
"We need to work together," Bing said to the paper. "We need to work together to get the city from where it is to where everybody wants it to go."
"The question here is how much work I can get done, how much success I can have in a very short period of time," he continued.
Bing also told supporters upon his victory that he plans to make changes that people voted him in for.
"What I want to ask you for is just a little bit of patience," Bing said. "As I bring my team into city government, we are going to make the changes that you voted us in to make."
Bing is expected to be certified as mayor within 72 hours, serving the remainder of Kilpatrick's term.
He was the #2 overall pick in the NBA Draft in 1966, playing for the local team until 1975, before moving to the Washington Bullets and the Boston Celtics where he finished his career.
Bing is also the owner of a Detroit steel manufacturer, The Bing Group, that supplies auto makers. The deterioration of the auto industry has devastated Motor City, resulting in a $250 million to $300 million budget deficit, double-digit unemployment and a surge of home foreclosures.
Although he's mayor today, Bing will have to run in the traditional primary in August and win the election in November in order to secure a full four year term as mayor.
He is expected to hit the campaign trail in the coming weeks. However, he said he will let his political team handle the campaigning while he focuses on running the city.
"My focus will not be on another campaign," he said.
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